Germany Just Confirmed Everyone’s Worst Fears About Syrian Refugees

Islamic extremists in Germany are using food, shelter and the religion of home as bait as they fish the wave of Syrian refugees entering Germany for new converts to radical Islam.

“They start by saying, ‘We will help you live your faith,’” Torsten Voss of Germany’s domestic intelligence agency told the Wall Street Journal. “The Islamist area comes later — that is, of course, their goal.”

German officials said that refugees who want to attend mosques in search of familiar surroundings are, increasingly, attending those frequented by Islamic extremists. German officials told the Journal that they already know of at least 100 instances in which Islamic extremists known to the authorities have tried to establish contact with refugees.

“I’m afraid that anti-Americanism, anti-Israel sentiment and anti-Semitism will be on the rise,” said Der Tagesspiegel editor in chief Malte Lehming. “We have very limited educational tools to change that. Syria is one of the most anti-Israel countries, influenced by Iran and helped by Hezbollah.”

More than one million Syrian refugees are expected to enter Germany in the next year. The radicalization of Muslim refugees has taken on a new urgency in Europe after disclosure that at least one of the terrorists participating in the Paris attacks entered Europe in the mass of Syrian refugees.

Berlin recently distributed a 16-page pamphlet alerting aid workers. Extremists may “take advantage of the refugees’ emotional situation to influence especially young people ideologically, to build ties to them ideologically, and in the worst case to incite them to acts of violence,” it said.

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In Saarland, along the French border, Helmut Albert, the state’s chief domestic intelligence official, said that since early September, most newly arrived refugees are frequenting radical Islamic mosques.

“We’re watching to see whether, over time, the refugees start going there not only because the sermons are in Arabic but because they’ve joined the movement,” he said.